

PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



647 



iTivsn will not force upon UA a government against 

 our will. 



i iiiloriii.itioii which I considered reliable, I 

 n-isuiiifil in my messaire nl' tin- !..lh ill' May lust Hint 

 (hi- populai. uln was not more than thirty 



'1 tin- Mpmion that this nuin- 

 ;oo small i-ilhi'i- to assume 

 . enjoy tin- pri\ ilexes nl' a Slat.-. 



It uppi-.irs that pn-viniis to tliat tinn- tin- I 



\\iili a vii-w lo asfi-rtain the exact condition 

 "!' tli.- a luw authori/.in- 



ill.- population to In; taken. The law made it 

 tin- duly of the assessors in the several coun: 

 MIS in ronnei-tion with the annual a 

 anil, in or. lor to secure a correct cumin-ration 

 nl' the population, allowed them a liberal compen- 

 sation for the service by paying them for every name 

 returned, and added to their previous oath of oflicc 



10 perform this duty with fidelity. 

 i the accompanying official report it appears 

 that returns have been received from fifteen of the 

 eighteen counties into which the State is divided, 

 and that their population amounts in the aggregate to 

 twenty-four thousand nine hundred and nine. The 

 three remaining counties are estimated to contain 

 three- thousand, making a total population of twenty- 

 seven thousand nine hundred and nine. 



This census was taken in the summer season, when 



it is claimed that the population is much larger than 



at any oth'-r period, as in the autumn miners in large 



numbers leave their work and return to the East with 



-ults of (heir summer enterprise. 



Tii population, it will be observed, is but slightly 



in excess of one-fifth of the number required as the 



of representation for a single congressional 



<!i-uiiet iii any of the States, the number teing one 



hundred and twenty-seven thousand. 



I am unable to perceive any good reason for such 

 great disparity in the right of representation, giving, 

 as it would, to the people of Colorado not only this 

 vast advantage in the House of Representatives, but 

 an equality in the Senate, where the other States are 

 [.presented by millions. With perhaps a single ex- 

 ception, no such inequality as this has ever oefore 

 been attempted. I know that it is claimed that the 

 population of the different States at the time of their 

 ion has varied at different periods : but it has 

 not varied much more than the population of each 

 decade, and the corresponding basis of representa- 

 tion for the different periods. 



The obvious intent of the Constitution was that no 

 State should be admitted with a less population than 

 the ratio for a representative at the time of applica- 

 tion. The limitation in the second section of the 

 first article of the Constitution, declaring that " each 

 State shall have at least one Representative," was 

 manifestly designed to protect the States which 

 originally composed the Union from being deprived, 

 in the event of a waning population, of a voice in 

 the popular brunch of Congress, and was never in- 

 tended as a warrant to force a new State into the 

 Union with a representative population far below 

 that which might at the time bo required of sister 

 members of the Confederacy. This bill, in view of 

 the prohibition of the same section, which declares 

 that "the number of Representatives shall not ex- 

 ceed one for every thirty thousand," is at least a 

 violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the Consti- 

 tution. 



Tt is respectfully submitted that however Con. 

 under the pressure of circumstances, may have ad- 

 mitted two or three States with less than a repre- 

 sentative population at the time, there has been, no 

 instance in which an application for admission has 

 ever been eniei lained when the population,- as offi- 

 riallv ascertained, was below thirty thousand. 



Were there any doubt of this being the true, con- 

 struction of the Constitution, it would be dispelled 

 by the early and long-continued practice of the Fed- 

 eral Government, For nearly sixty years after the 



adoption of the Constitution no State was admitted 



\\ ilh 11 population believed lit the time to be li- 

 the cnri cut ratio ! nt.itive ; und the first 

 instance in whieh tin-re apj. < been a de- 

 parture from the principle wus in 1 - i '>, in the case 

 ni Florida, obviously the result of .sectional strife, 

 we would do well to regard it us a warning 

 ralln-r than as an example for imitation ; und I think 

 candid men of all parties will agree that the inspir- 

 use of the violation of this wholesome prin<-i- 



Ele of iv.-'.trainl is to he foiin I in a vain attempt r. 

 e antagonisms which refused to be rec- 

 onciled except through the bloody arbitrament of 

 arms. The plain facts of onr history will attest that 

 the great and leading States admitted since 1845, 

 namely, Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, and 

 Kansas including Texas, which was admitted that 

 year have all come with an ample population for 

 one Representative, and some of them with nearly 

 or ((iiite enough Cor two. 



To demonstrate the correctness of my views on 

 this question, I subjoin a table containing a list of 

 the States admitted since the adoption of the Fed- 

 eral Constitution, with the date of admission, the 

 ratio of representation, and the representative popu- 

 lation when admitted, deduced from the United 

 States census tables, the calculation being made for 

 the period of the decade corresponding with the 

 date of admission. 



Colorado, which it is now proposed to admit as a 

 State, contains, as has already been stated, a popula- 

 tion less than twenty -eight thousand, while the pres- 

 ent ratio of representation is one hundred and twen- 

 ty-seven thousand. 



There can be no reason that I can perceive for the 

 admission of Colorado that would not apply with 

 equal force to nearly every other Territory now or- 

 ganized ; and I submit whether, if this bill become 

 a law, it will be possible to resist the logical conclu- 

 sion that such Territories as Dakota, Montana, and 

 Idaho, must be received as States whenever they 

 present themselves, without regard to the number 

 of inhabitants they may respectively contain. Eight 

 or ten new Senators and four or five new members 

 of the House of Representatives would thus be ad- 

 mitted to represent a population scarcely exceeding 

 that which in any other portion of the nation is en- 

 titled to but a single member of the House of Rep- 

 resentatives, while the average for two Senators, in 

 the Union as now constituted, is at least one million 

 people. It would surely be unjust to all other sec- 

 tions of the Union to enter upon a policy with regard 

 to the admission of new States wnich might result 

 in conferring such a disproportionate share of influ- 

 ence in the national Legislature upon communities 

 which, in pursuance of the wise policy of our fathers, 

 should for some years to come be retained under the 

 fostering care and protection of the national Govern- 

 mei.t. If it is deemed just and expedient now to 

 depart from the settled policy of the nation during 

 all its history, and to admit all the Territories to the 

 rights and privileges of States, irrespective of their 

 population or fitness for such government, it is sub- 

 mitted whether it would not be well to devise such 

 measures as will bring the subject before the country 

 for consideration and decision. This would seem to 

 be evidently wise, because, as has already been 

 stated, if it is right to admit Colorado now, there 

 is no reason for the exclusion of the other Terri- 

 tories. 



It is no answer to these suggestions that an en- 

 abling act was passed authorizing the people of 

 Colorado to take action on this subject. It is well 

 known that that act was passed in consequence of 

 representations that the population reached, accord- 

 ing to some statements, as nigh as eighty thousand, 

 and to none less than fifty thousand, and was grow- 

 inir ith a rapidity which* by the time the admission 

 could be consummated, would secure a population 

 of over a hundred thousand. These representations 



